1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to integrating content-laden media with a storage system, such as for example integrating a disk drive already including digital content with a RAID storage subsystem.
2. Related Art
Distribution of digital content representing media streams, such as for example movies, is subject to several problems. One problem is that digital content representing an individual movie, or a set of movies, can include a relatively large amount of data. In known systems, receiving that digital content involves at least two significant delays: (1) a first delay between when the digital content is requested and when it is actually received, and (2) a second delay between when the digital content is received and when it is actually available for use. The second delay poses a particular problem in that, while users might be used to waiting for delivery of a product, it is more annoying to have to wait, again, to use that product once it has been delivered and received. It would be advantageous to be able to distribute digital content, particularly digital content representing media streams, without substantial time delay in receiving that content, and especially without substantial time delay in being able to use that content once it is received.
One method of distributing digital content is to physically send a copy of that content on physical media, such as for example a DVD or magnetic disk. While this method generally achieves the goal of sending a relatively large amount of content in a relatively convenient package, it is subject to the drawback that it involves either (1) substantial complexity and possible awkwardness if that content is not integrated into the file system, or (2) integrating the content into a file system or other storage system when the content is to be used. For a first example, if that content is maintained on the original DVD or magnetic disk on which it was received, it would involve the storage system tracking what content is on what media, rather than advantageously leaving that task to a set of lower level operations for reading and writing physical media. For a second example, if that content is maintained off-line, the user might be involved in physically adding that content to what is accessible by the storage system. For a third example, even if that content is maintained on-line, it might still take substantial time to access it, such as for example when using a DVD carousel.
If that content is not integrated into the file system, as described in option 1 above, that content remains on its own separate physical media. Systems using this technique are subject to several drawbacks: (A) The storage system is not generally able to avail itself of redundant information techniques to protect that content against error or loss. (B) It would either involve permanently maintaining multiple namespaces for content, such as for example one for each such disk, or involve the storage system tracking what content is on what media, rather than advantageously leaving that task to a set of lower level operations for maintaining portions of the storage namespace on multiple physical media. (C) It might pose a problem if there were more such disks than the storage system was able to physically accommodate. For example, a storage system might involve significant extra effort if more than 12 disk drives or more than several hundred DVD's were used.
If that content is integrated into the file system, as described in option 2 above, one method of integrating that content is to copy the data from the physical media used to transport it to a different set of physical media used to maintain a file system. While this method is effective in providing the content for use with the file system, it is subject to several drawbacks: (A) It can take a relatively long time to copy the data. For example, a 350 Gigabyte disk might take several hours to copy using known disk drives. (B) Also, it might involve providing at least one empty disk drive slot from which to copy the data.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a technique for integrating content that is not subject to drawbacks of the known art.